


no dice.

by iamaqualady



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, Eddie Kaspbrak Loves Richie Tozier, Eddie has tattoos, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gay Eddie Kaspbrak, Gay Richie Tozier, Love Confessions, M/M, Post-Canon Fix-It, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie has feelings about Eddie's tattoos, an awkward situation involving a grindr profile
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-08 19:26:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20840765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamaqualady/pseuds/iamaqualady
Summary: based off hyrude's tumblr post: richie opens grindr and spots someone with a torso profile pic who’s evidently 10 ft away and goes “eddie, dude, ok this isn’t how i wanted to come out to you but you gotta see this. someone in this townhouse has a chest tattoo that says ‘no dice’”





	no dice.

**Author's Note:**

> special thanks to all the people i bothered to help me perfect this and my girlfriend for dealing with my panic about being a bad author.

Forty years in the closet had set Richie back quite a bit in the gay dating scene, but it wasn’t long after the Loser’s final battle under Neibolt and staring into the deadlights that he’d decided to start pursuing everything he wanted in life. Well— _almost_ everything. 

The missing piece of the perfect scenario was sitting across from him in Ben and Beverly’s Portland townhouse. The gang was meeting up for the first time since the couples’ wedding to celebrate the birth of their baby, but Richie and Eddie were the only ones to arrive so far. They’d talked and joked and teased each other for a while before settling into a comfortable silence; Eddie was staring intently at his phone, _probably reading about amoebas or some bullshit, _Richie thought, while the new parents were fussing over Baby Stanley in his nursery.

Richie had been lazily clicking through various social media apps for a while before taking a quick glance around him and opening Grindr. Sure, it wasn’t the classiest introduction to the aforementioned gay dating scene, but it was the one he knew about, and it had been working out for him pretty well so far. And, sure, he didn’t have a boyfriend, yet, but he’d hooked up with a couple guys and managed to only picture a few of them as Eddie. So, a pretty good start, if you asked Richie.

He scrolled through the never-ending list of men, some looking for quick, anonymous sex, some looking for something more, and some looking for… whatever the fuck the guy with the Santa Claus profile picture was looking for.

As he scrolled, he noticed there was quite a few active profiles in his vicinity. Some a couple hundred feet away and a few much closer. One in particular stood out, though; this guy was apparently only ten feet away, sporting a torso profile picture – which, sure, wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary – but the swirling script below the collarbones are what caught Richie’s eye.

_What does that say? _He brought his phone up closer to his face, squinting to make out the words _No Dice. _What the _fuck_ did that mean?

Richie chuckled to himself, causing Eddie to glance up at him. “What?” he asked, reaching his foot across the space between them to kick Richie’s shin.

Richie blushed. “Nothin’,” he mumbled, earning another kick from Eddie. “Fuck, Eds, that hurts, y’know.” 

“Tell me why you’re laughing then, dickhead,” Eddie probed. He could sense something was off; Richie had never been one to keep any of his thoughts – especially ones he found funny – to himself. The other man shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and Eddie could see he was nervously chewing on the inside of his cheek. “Rich? Everything okay?”

Richie stayed silent a bit longer before glancing around and leaning closer to Eddie. “Okay, fuck, yeah, I’m fine.” He scrubbed a hand over his face as he forced himself to meet Eddie’s eyes. “Eddie…”

“Richie, what is—”

“Dude, can you shut the fuck up? M’clearly nervous about somethin’ here.” Eddie sat back in his seat, deciding to give Richie his moment for… whatever this was. “**Eddie… Dude, okay, this isn’t how I wanted to come out to you, but you gotta see this.**” Eddie barely even had time to process what he was saying before Richie was shoving his phone in his face and _oh fuck, oh no_. “**Someone in this townhouse has a chest tattoo that says, ‘No Dice.’** What the fuck does that—”

Eddie abruptly got to his feet. “Shut up, Richie,” he ordered, reaching down to grab his friend’s wrist and drag him into the guest bedroom.

“Eds?” Richie asked as Eddie closed and locked the door behind him. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining about getting you alone. You really know how to drive a man wild with a nice cashmere ensemble, but—”

“Christ, Rich, do you ever stop talking?” Eddie snapped. It was his turn to be nervous now. 

“Uh, no?” Richie laughed despite himself, in an attempt to soothe the tension. “S’kinda my thing.” Eddie ran a hand through his hair and turned around, unable to look Richie in the eyes. “Did I, uh, offend you? I didn’t realize you had such a personal connection to shitty chest tattoos.”

Eddie mumbled something in response, so quiet Richie couldn’t hear.

“You’re gonna need to speak into the mic, love, I can’t hear you if—”

“I said, that’s _my_ tattoo, asshole.” Eddie turned back around, meeting Richie’s stunned gaze and – _oh._

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” Eddie replied, shifting his weight from foot to foot. “This wasn’t exactly how I wanted to come out to you either.”

Richie’s thoughts were running a thousand miles per second – for once in his life – too fast for even his mouth to keep up with. The only thing he could think to say was, “But—but you were married.” 

“Yeah, I was,” Eddie sighed, exhausted. “I needed someone to replace my mother, and you, of all people, should understand how growing up in Derry can fuck with…” He trailed off, struggling for the right word. “Accepting… things.”

“Right,” Richie said, finally allowing his jelly legs a break by sitting on the bed. Eddie, _his_ Eddie, was gay? And… “You got a fucking chest tattoo?”

“Don’t be so fucking loud, Trashmouth.” Eddie leaned against the wall in front of Richie, covering his beet red face with his hands.

“But why?”

“Long story.”

“Oh, trust me, babe, I got time.” That finally got Eddie to look back up. “You get into gambling or something, Eds?”

“No, no.” Eddie replied, pushing himself off the wall and moving to join Richie on the bed.

“Join a gang? Kill a guy? Lose a bet? Go to jail? Did you—”

“Fuck off, Richie.” He clearly wasn’t in the mood for jokes, so Richie decided to leave his dizzying thoughts unsaid, instead allowing Eddie to collect his and explain.

“Right after Mike called, just before I left New York, I had to go back to the office to tell them I was taking off.” He sighed, glancing over his shoulder to look out the window. “Pieces of Derry were coming back to me, bit-by-bit… I—I couldn’t remember everything, y’know? But I remembered being scared.” He reached up a hand up to his torso, tracing the scar from his navel to the middle of his pecs over his sweater. “So, I, uh, I went to this guy in my office. We had this game where we’d come up with the most ridiculous scenarios we could think of – y’know, fighting giant tarantulas, jumping into Mount Doom, whatever – and ask whether or not we thought someone could survive. We called it _No Dice_ because, well, the answer was usually always no, no way, no one could survive that.

“So, I went to his office, and I said, hey, let’s say you pick a fight with a demon that’s thousands of years old, can shapeshift into your greatest fears, and has a pretty high body count – could you beat It?” He chuckled and looked down, shaking his head. “No Dice, he said. That’s a crazy fuckin’ scenario, Kaspbrak, but no, no way, no one could survive that. No Dice.” Eddie turned to meet look Richie in the eyes and shrugged. “But I—_we_ made it. We beat It. We survived.” Eddie gripped the front of his sweater, as if grounding himself. “I almost didn’t.”

“You don’t need to remind me,” Richie assured, not wanting to bring his mind back to when he’d almost lost Eddie, who nodded.

“Well, right after I left Myra, I was feelin’ pretty fuckin’ good about myself. I felt like I could do anything, and there was a whole list of things I wanted to do that I’d been so scared of my whole life for no reason. The first one was a tattoo.” He reached up and pulled down the neck of his sweater, allowing Richie a peek at the delicate script below his collarbones.

“Christ, Eds,” Richie whispered. “That’s… that’s really badass, dude.” That finally got Eddie to smile.

“Think so?” he asked shyly, and Richie nodded.

“Fuck yeah, dude! Eddie Spaghetti? Tattooed? Never in a thousand years could I have imagined that!”

“Don’t call me that, asshole.” But Eddie was smiling anyways.

“You know, I have a list like that, too. I didn’t even realize how much I was holding myself back from.”

“Yeah? Like what?” Eddie eyes searched Richie’s face, and Richie wished he knew what he was looking for.

“Like getting it on with your mom one last time,” he teased, earning a shove as Eddie pushed himself off the bed.

“Geez, Rich, I’m trying to have a serious conversation with you.” That made Richie feel a bit guilty, so he opened the notes app on his phone.

“I’ve got it written down, actually,” he offered, holding it up a bit. “I’ll read you a few, if you want.”

“Sure,” Eddie replied, crossing his arms and strolling over to the window, back turned to Richie.

Richie wet his lips as he began to read. “Uh, well, I think I wanna, like, get married?” He could see Eddie’s shoulders tensing. “I know, doesn’t sound like me, but being alone is starting to get pretty fucking boring and pathetic.” He glanced down at his phone again. “And, like, to a guy, obviously, if that wasn’t—”

“Yeah, Richie, I got that.” Eddie laughed. “What else?”

“Uh…” He let out a shaky, nervous breath. “I want to write a movie. I want to go on tour overseas. I want to—” He glanced up at the back of Eddie’s head. “I want to be more honest with people.”

“Yeah?” Eddie turned around, tilting his head slightly. “About what?”

Richie sighed, unable to meet Eddie’s eyes. “I… Eddie, I—I never _actually_ fucked your mom. I was joking the whole time.”

“You are such a fucking dickhead, you know that? I really thought that for once, we could have a serious moment, but you had to go and—”

“And, I’m like, uh, in love with you, or whatever,” Richie mumbled, speaking so quickly and softly that Eddie almost didn’t hear him.

“You’re what?” Eddie’s mouth was dry; Richie looked so small, all of a sudden. His limbs were folded into himself and he kept his eyes glued to the floor. This wasn’t the Richie he knew – confident and boisterous and always ready to crack a joke – this was a new Richie, one who was alone and feared being rejected.

“Yeah,” Richie confirmed. “I have been since we were, like, twelve.” He finally looked up at Eddie. “But—but I get you’re probably not—I mean, I know you don’t feel the same about me. And it’s cool, don’t feel bad, I just wanted to tell you ‘cause—”

“Shut up, Richie.” Eddie crossed the room quickly, closing the gap between them as he took Richie’s face in his hands and kissed him.

Richie’s heart froze in his chest, his hands coming up and gripping Eddie’s wrists, holding him there as if Eddie would have ever let go, as if he ever would stop this, as if this wasn’t a moment he’d dreamt of since middle school.

The kiss was long, heated, but none of it was rushed. They had both been waiting too long to ever part with this moment, this beautiful relief. When they did break away, Richie pressed his forehead against Eddie’s cheekbone, breathing softly against his skin.

“Eddie...” Richie sighed, content. Eddie turned his head slightly and pressed a kiss to the top of Richie’s head, who, for the second time that day found his thoughts moving too quickly to process.

Eddie pulled back, brushing his fingers over Richie’s stubble. “I swear to god, Trashmouth, if you try to make a joke right now, I’ll kill you.” Richie’s face broke into a grin.

“You wouldn’t,” he challenged. “You _love _me.”

Eddie scowled. “I knew you were gonna be an asshole about this.”

Richie squeezed Eddie’s wrists once more before moving to entwine their fingers. “I get it, Eds, I’m irresistible. It’s a miracle you were able to hold back all these years.” He brushed a kiss over Eddie’s knuckles before settling their clasped hands below his chin. He looked so _beautiful_ and happy in this moment that Eddie couldn’t even bring himself to validate his jokes with a comeback.

“For once in your life, though, you’re right.” Eddie leaned in and kissed Richie once more, very briefly. “I love you.”

The words sent sparks of electricity through Richie’s body, and he thought he was going to pass out from how happy he was. “I love you,” he echoed, rising to his feet and wrapping his arms tightly around Eddie’s waist. “I love you.” He began pressing sloppy, wet kisses all over Eddie’s face, ignoring his whines and protests and stopping only when there was a knock on the bedroom door.

“Hey, lovebirds,” Beverly called through the door. “Mike and Bill just got here; we’re all waiting for you two to come out.”

Richie ran to the door and pulled it open, grinning at Beverly and holding his arms out wide. “I’m gay!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah, tell me something I don’t know, Trashmouth,” she teased. “That’s not what I meant by come out, though.” Richie’s face flushed, and Eddie snickered behind him. “The fuck are you laughing at, Kaspbrak? It’s not like you were exactly hiding it well, either.” Eddie immediately shut up, and Beverly smiled wide at them. “I’ll give you guys five more minutes to be sappy, but then we’re going to dinner without you.” She turned to leave, closing the door behind her and leaving Richie and Eddie alone once again.

“What do you think?” Eddie asked, pulling Richie into his arms. “Five minutes enough to make up for thirty years of lost time?”

Richie chuckled. “No dice,” he teased, bringing a hand up to cup Eddie’s cheek. “But we might as well get started now.” Eddie smiled and leaned in, kissing Richie softly.

They pulled away, and Eddie gazed happily into Richie’s eyes. “I love you,” he hummed.

“Yeah, I know.” Richie smirked, wrapping an arm around Eddie’s shoulders and kissing the top of his head. 

Eddie rolled his eyes.“Fuck you, man.” 

“Oh, is that offer on the table, too?” Richie teased as they began to walk out of the room. 

“Seriously, I wish you would just shut the fuck up sometimes.”

“Come on, like my biting wit isn’t what drew you to me in the first place.” They went back and forth like that for a while, and Richie was so unbelievably happy. 

Eddie’s warm weight in his arms and his stupid jokes in his ears were all Richie would ever want for the rest of his life; he would fight a thousand demons just to feel this every day, but he didn’t have to. Richie was Eddie’s, and Eddie was Richie’s. It had just taken them a while to realize it.

Forty years had been a long time to spend in the closet, for both of them. Forty years of being scared, of waiting for the last piece of their perfect scenarios to click into place.

But it was worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know what you thought! thanks for reading!


End file.
